Edesia signs 25-year lease at Quonset Business Park

Edesia Inc., a nonprofit that produces ready-to-use therapeutic foods and supplemental foods for malnourished children, has signed a 25-year lease at Quonset Business Park, where it plans to build a new facility and relocate from its current Providence location.

Edesia signs 25-year lease at Quonset Business Park

EDESIA INC. will relocate to Quonset Business Park from Providence after constructing a new 85,000-square-foot facility there. Edesia Executive Director Navyn Salem, pictured above, said Quonset's site-readiness program was critical to the nonprofit's decision to make a 25-year lease commitment.

NORTH KINGSTOWN – Edesia Inc., a nonprofit that produces ready-to-use therapeutic foods and supplemental foods for malnourished children, will enter a 25-year lease at Quonset Business Park, where it plans to relocate from its current headquarters in Providence.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, approved Tuesday by the Quonset Development Corporation board of directions, Edesia will construct the facility on a 10-acre parcel at the business park. The building could be as large as 85,000 square feet and house between 75 and 100 employees, according to a release, with the option to expand another 25,000 square feet as needed.

Edesia expects to break ground on the facility within 90 days of signing the approved lease.

“Edesia is happy to have found a home for our new state-of-the-art factory in Quonset Business Park. Having a location that was site-ready was critical in our decision to make the move from Providence,” said Navyn Salem, executive director of Edesia. “The faster we build, the more quickly we can meet the growing demands of our humanitarian partners, such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and USAID/USDA.”

The Edesia lease agreement was reached in part through Quonset’s site-readiness program, a joint collaboration between the QDC and state agencies including the R.I. Department of Environmental Management and the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council. Through the program, the QDC completes in advance all permitting and engineering a developer would have to conduct as part of due diligence to get a project underway.

The new lease also includes an incentive package that offers a 16 percent discount based on the 25-year-lease commitment, as well as additional discounts for job creation and total payroll. The incentive program is the standard incentive offered by the QDC on all Quonset Business Park leases.

“Edesia’s arrival at Quonset and continued growth is a tremendous example of how companies continue to succeed in Rhode Island,” said Marcel A. Valois, executive director of the R.I. Commerce Corporation and chairman of the QDC board of directors. “In the past several months the Quonset site-readiness program has shown its effectiveness by attracting two food industry tenants, Greencore and Edesia. This should be a template for other areas of the state as we continue to create the right conditions for all businesses to grow in Rhode Island.”

Quonset Business Park is now home to more than 175 companies, employing approximately 9,500 people in full-time and part-time jobs across several industries.

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